http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/main.php en-us Gallery 2 RSS Module, version 1.1.7 Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:00:02 -0400 120 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/d/21160-2/.jpg http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/main.php http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/merkin_concert_hall_010307.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/merkin_concert_hall_010307.jpg.html
August 25, 2010
Once in a while I find an old receipt sitting in a drawer or stuck in a book. This old ticket stub from Andrew Violette's performance of his 7th Piano Sonata was found in a wood box which sits in my bedroom. There is not much in this box. It is where I stash special things, regardless of the memories they evoke. The box contains the first rejection letter I ever got, from a girl named Susan, in 1981. It also holds gifts and mementos from ex-girlfriends and those who never became exes. I made the wood box, with these two hands, as a grade schooler. I can still remember hammering the nails and sawing the sheets of wood, making a joyful little racket on the floor of the garage at the house where I grew up.

I found this ticket stub in that box, stashed therein because this and other concerts by Andrew Violette are among the most extraordinary I've ever seen.]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/costco_lic_100822.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/costco_lic_100822.jpg.html
Only a few items on this receipt are for me. A couple of friends from the neighborhood and I went to Costco, and they did most of the buying. I was growing somewhat skeptical of Costco, finding that prices for items I might actually use were no better than anywhere else. This is decidedly true of their electronics. On this day, though, I discovered the 40 ounce bags of Starbucks French Roast X-Bold for $19.99 each, and the 12-pack of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup (with 25% less sodium) for $7.99. These happen to be items I buy all the time at Starbucks and at the grocery store, but 40 ounces of French Roast beans sold in individual 16-ounce bags at Starbucks stores are way more expensive than these larger bags. Three 16-ounce bags (48 ounces) of French Roast X-Bold at $10.95 each would cost about $33 at a Starbucks. The 40-ounce bags at Costco are but $19.99. That, I have to say, is the best price I have found at Costco for something that I regularly buy, and it might just inspire me to keep my membership. The cans of soup, similarly, would usually be $1.29 at non-sale prices at a Trade Fair or Bravo, but in Costco's packs of 12 they come out to about 67¢ each. That ain't bad, either.]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100811.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100811.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100810.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100810.jpg.html
These CD/DVD cases are intended to help me clear my shelves of CDs in their jewel cases, and DVDs in their packaging. I began transferring my CDs to FLAC files for storage on my hard drive, this in anticipation of the inevitable deterioration of all the CDs I accumulated between the 1980s sometime around 2005, when I more-or-less stopped buying CDs. CDs are made of cheap crap and anyone who invested their money in this flimsy product should be concerned about losing their music. Seriously. While encoding these CDs I have already found that some of them are corrupted, and some tracks are unsalvageable.

I do not remember the last CD I bought but it might have been the 3-CD volume of Andrew Violette's Piano Sonata #7, a recording I vividly remember for listening to it while wandering around the blighted areas of Long Island City. I also happen to have found the ticket stub from the Mr. Violette's concert performance of this mighty work at Merkin Concert Hall on March 7, 2001. On that same stage, maybe at the same piano, a few years later, I saw a full performance of Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum, a 3+ hour piano work by Kaokhosru Sorabji which had established something of a mythical place in the piano repertoire.

I rarely go to concerts any more. The ritual of the concert and the endlessly recycled content of most everything I've seen promoted of late simply do not interest me much. But epic piano works like Violette's 7th Sonata and Sorabji's "OC" can still inspire me to turn out. Sorabji and his "OC" represented a central fascination for me throughout my conservatory years. It was thus an interesting and seemingly inevitable segue when I moved to New York and learned of a fascinating composer/pianist named Andrew Violette, described to me by my pianophile friend Don Garvelmann as "The Sorabji of Washington Heights." That tantalizing introduction to Violette (in the early 1990s) was all the inspiration I needed to track down printed copies and cassette tapes of his always-interesting piano works.

I will discard many of my CD and DVD cases, while stashing the discs and booklets in these Targus cases, but a handful of CDs will stay on my shelves in the form in which I bought them. Violette's 7th Sonata is on that list, as is the 10-volume series of Grigory Ginzburg CDs, and all Vladimir Horowitz discs. This relatively small quantity of CDs is special enough to me that I shall keep them in the form in which I experienced them. Most other CDs will be digitized and then stuffed away into these folders, probably never to be seen again.]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/macys_lenox_970629.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/macys_lenox_970629.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/lanzee_100824.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/lanzee_100824.jpg.html
In the short term this $5.43 purchase of a black window shade has proven to be the most significant new object in my life. This replaced a similar black window shade which became tattered and gnarly, and which fell off its hooks about a year ago, or maybe longer. In the year+ that it took me to replace this window shade I have sat next to the window, bright sunlight blasting in, making these computer screens almost impossible to see at times, and making my eyes hurt. I guess I did not realize what a difference this light-blocker would make, but I find that sitting at this desk by the window is far more comfortable now than before, leading me to think that maybe I should move my office space to a windowless corner. That would be a bothersome mess, though, with the tangle of wires and re-arrangement of the entire space. It also reminds me of my lingering desire to move to another apartment, to a space with a dedicated office room, versus this current arrangement of a living room/office, which generally works out just fine on account of myself being the only person here. Moving in New York is a little riskier than it used to be, despite the abundance of vacant apartments, on account of the bedbug infestation. Plus, this is a fine, fine apartment. I like the window seat, though, even if the shades and blinds are drawn at the moment. At corporate I had a multi-window corner office spectacular, a conspicuously huge space which made me ill-at-ease for feeling like I had done little to merit such a vast swath of corporate Manhattan real estate.]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/marys_coffee_shop_100813.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/marys_coffee_shop_100813.jpg.html
Dining establishments come and go in Queens Plaza. A few doors down from Mary's Coffee Shop the short-lived Momento Restaurant seems to have closed shop. A hand-written sign in the window blames it on electrical problems, but promises they'll re-open soon. It's been a few months now since I noticed Momento had "temporarily" closed. Momento was a decent enough place (not as nasty as its bird-shit stained awning would have you think) but Mary's Coffee Shop has proven to be more than suitable replacement for me. I do not think I entered this place for about 7 years. This may have been on account of a bad date I had with a woman that many years ago, a date which included a stop at this coffee shop.]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/mta_nyc_100823.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/mta_nyc_100823.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:57 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/jk_products_100815.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/jk_products_100815.jpg.html
An ungainly, impenetrable, knotty mass of cables and wires behind my desk was relieved somewhat by this purchase of a 6-foot extension cord for a 3-pronged outlet. It seems I have never had such an extension cord as this, for a 3-pronged outlet. I do believe that as a younger person I was told that such extension cords for air conditioners and power strips were illegal. That can not be true, but this little myth somehow held influence over me.

The line which formed at the two cash registers was somewhat confusing. There were two lines, but the ends of those two lines were occupied by individuals who could not see that there was another line. Tension. Tension. The internal but palpable disquiet was quelled when a gentleman at the end of the other line stepped to the end of the line I was in. A woman in front of me gently protested, saying "You were here first," (which was true) but the man remained demure, saying "Patience is a virtue, ma'am, go on ahead."]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/backcountry_100801.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/backcountry_100801.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/alibris_100810.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/alibris_100810.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/powells_bookstore_100724.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/powells_bookstore_100724.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/gilbeys_100816.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/gilbeys_100816.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100815.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100815.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100816a.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100816a.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100816.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/amazon_100816.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:58 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/36th_ave_wine_100813.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/36th_ave_wine_100813.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:59 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/starbucks_100813.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/starbucks_100813.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:59 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/starbucks_100819.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/starbucks_100819.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:59 -0400 http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/costco_pharmacy_100814.jpg.html http://www.dailyreceipts.com/receipts/costco_pharmacy_100814.jpg.html ]]> sorabji photo Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:03:59 -0400